Every so often, the charts throw up a number 1 single that genuinely surprises me, because I simply didn’t think the band had that much support.  Or because I’d forgotten they existed.  This is such a week, for both reasons.

“Telephone” managed two weeks at the top for Lady Gaga, although it has to be said that there wasn’t exactly much competition from new releases – the turnover of new hits has declined to a level rarely seen outside the Christmas break.  But this week it’s shouldered aside by a two-way race for the Easter number one.  (Actually, it’s sort of a three-way race… but I’ll come back to that.)

And the winners are… Scouting for Girls, with “This Ain’t a Love Song”.

Really? Scouting for Girls? Really?

It’s not that I can’t see the appeal.  Scouting for Girls are a London band who are sometimes misclassified as indie, presumably on the basis that they play instruments.  In fact, they’re really more of a throwback to the days when pop bands were actual bands; musically, they exist somewhere in a hinterland between indie pop and James Blunt or Take That.  And that’s a market which isn’t exactly oversaturated, so you can see why there’s a place for them. But their natural habitat isn’t the NME so much as the soundtrack to a Richard Curtis film. Nothing wrong with that.

“This Ain’t A Love Song” – and by the way, if the title sounds familiar, you’re probably thinking of either the classic “This Is Not A Love Song” by Public Image Limited (number 5 in 1983) or the decidedly less classic “This Ain’t A Love Song” by Bon Jovi (number 6 in 1995) – is the lead single from Scouting for Girls’ second album. The first one came out back in 2007 and spawned five top 40 hits, the biggest and best known being “She’s So Lovely”, which reached number 7. (The non-embeddable YouTube version is here.)

The others, if you’re wondering, are “It’s Not About You” (number 31), “Elvis Ain’t Dead” (number 8), “Heartbeat” (number 10) and “I Wish I Was James Bond” (number 40, but then it came out over a year after the album). Nonetheless, we’re dealing here with a band who haven’t released a record in ages, who haven’t troubled the top 10 in over two years, and who haven’t previously made the top 5, so their sudden appearance at number 1 is a bit unexpected.  That said, while they’ve been away, “She’s So Lovely” and “Heartbeat” have both become established staples of compilation albums, so they’ve cemented their reputation.

Coming in behind them at number 2 is Plan B with “She Said”, the second single from his “Defamation of Strickland Banks” concept album.  Formerly a rapper (who never made the top 40 in those days), Plan B has reinvented himself as a soul act of sorts.

This is his third single, following “Stay Too Long” earlier in the year, and his guest vocal on the excellent “End Credits” by Chase and Status from 2009. Both of those reached number 9, so this seemingly eccentric new direction is evidently paying dividends. Great video, too.

The other top 10 new entry this week is a highly unusual one – “History Makers” by Delirious?, entering at number 4.  Delirious? are something we don’t see very often in the top 40 – Christian worship music.

Why don’t we see more Christian music in the charts?  Well, Britain’s not a very religious market.  But that’s not really it, because secular audiences have never had a problem with gospel choirs or the Hallelujah Chorus.  It’s probably more significant that the market for Christian music is fairly insular; it tends to get sold through specialist outlets and it’s not frequently promoted to a mainstream audience.  To be honest, I’m not quite sure how comprehensively the Official Chart Company covers Christian record stores.  There’s also the fact that a lot of Christian music tends to be evangelical in character; it doesn’t quite have the universality of some religious music.  And of course, a lot of it really isn’t very good (but then plenty of mediocre records make the charts, so let’s not overstate that as a factor).

Delirious? are something of an exception to the rule.  They recently disbanded after a decade-long career which saw occasional attempts to market them to mainstream audiences, with moderate success.  “History Maker”, a 13-year-old album track and a staple of their live set, is actually their eighth top 40 hit.  Until now, their biggest hit was See the Star”, which reached number 16 in 1999.  Now, that said… while they’ve charted fairly often, they never stick around for very long.  In fact, all but one of their singles dropped out of the top 40 after a single week, and out of the top 75 after two.  So it’s very much a niche audience – but a significantly bigger one than most British Christian bands manage.

Why are they here? Because of a Christian Facebook campaign to try and get a Christian single to number 1 for Easter.  Historically, nobody has attributed any particular significance to the Easter number 1; this is something of a parody of the Rage Against The Machine campaign over Christmas, and fair enough, really.  Obviously they didn’t make it to number 1, but it has to be said that number 4 isn’t bad.  Plenty of people try to organise this sort of campaign and get nowhere.  Of course, the campaign was asking people to download all three available versions of the song, so there are probably a lot of repeat purchases in here (as with RATM), but it’s still a surprisingly good showing.

Also charting over the last two incredibly quiet weeks…

• “OMG” by Usher featuring will.i.am at number 8 and climbing.  Why, it seems like literally minutes since will.i.am last had a record out.  Usher hasn’t had a single of his own out in almost two years, though.  This brings his total to 16 hits.  You’ll be stunned to learn that it features heavy Autotune.
• “Carry Out” by Timbaland featuring Justin Timberlake at number 16 and climbing.  You know the formula by now.  Timbaland’s 8th hit as a lead artist, and 15th if you count his “featuring” appearances.  Justin Timberlake brings his solo career total to 17 hits, although he hasn’t actually released a single as a lead artist since 2007.
• “Memories” by David Guetta featuring Kid Cudi at number 30 and climbing.  Sixth hit for the French DJ, who had two number 1s last year with “Sexy Bitch” and “When Love Takes Over”.  Kid Cudi reached number 2 with a remix of “Day’N’Nite” last January, and now breaks his one-hit-wonder status.  Video is… well, yes.
• “Say It’s Over” by N-Dubz, entering this week at number 40.  Their seventh hit, and it’s bound to go further.